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captainsblogIt's now under two weeks to go here in the race for the open Congressional shirt seat vacated by my very own Representative, Chris Lee. With each passing day, it becomes more and more clear that the circus has come to town.
A little background, for those coming in late. NY-26 is about as red a district as you can get in this bluest of blue states without annexing portions of Texas. A decade ago, when a draft redistricting plan threatened to put Rochester Congresswoman-for-Life Louise Slaughter in the same district as local Republican prettyboy Tom Reynolds, the latter went to Albany, spreading wisdom and cash around. He got the Lej to pass "Tom's Law"- a revised plan that stripped the City of Buffalo and most of the Rochester area of effective representation, but rewarded Reynolds with perhaps the safest Republican seat for 1,000 miles.
He then came close to losing it in 2006, when he became embroiled in one of the numerous GOP sex scandals, surviving the challenge, most likely, because we had a big storm here a month before the election, giving him photo ops on helicopters and with big FEMA checks to pass out all over the district. He took this as sufficient writing on the wall and retired to lobbying, whereupon the Repugs basically cloned him with Chris Lee, who won narrowly in '08 and handily last year before, you know, the shirt thing.
The Guv called the special election for May 24th. Dems quickly settled on Kathy Hochul (D-Hamburg), our county's clerk, with an impeccable record of managing that office and the affiliated local auto bureau and a history of being a hardworking, hands-on campaigner. After a few weeks of infighting, the GOP picked "Annoi Jane" Corwin (R-Stepford), the heiress of a local phone book company who claims to have been creating jobs in Western New York since she was four years old.
Given the demographics of the district and the general toxicity of Democratic politics in recent months, this race was entirely Jane's to lose. So far, she has done everything within her power to do just that. She started out with Day One attack ads against Kathy for being a pawn of Nancy Pelosi, when it quickly became clear that Kathy wasn't picked by, beholden to or even acquainted with the House's deposed leader. Next, she turned her sights on her biggest bugaboo, "Crazy Jack" Davis. Jack is the other allegedly self-made small-businessman millionaire in the race. He bought the Dem nomination in 2006 and lost; ran as an independent Democrat in 2008 and thereby enabled Shirtless to win; and is now running as a "Tea Party" candidate in this race, much to the chagrin of the likes of Karl Rove, who prefer to have the Teabaggers doing his business. Rove's attack ads are now targeting Jack as part of a Democratic "trick" to defeat their Mannequin-churian Candidate. They even co-opted one of the leading leaders of the Wingnuts in the 26th: "Sideshow Bob" Lonsberry, who runs a three-hour hatefest on Rochester's leading AM talker. Bob had actually endorsed Crazy Jack, only to pull out (and immediately into Jane) when he accused the latter of lying about the Republican candidate's position on Medicare reform.
Jane, you see, was dumb enough to come out unreservedly in favor of the "Ryan budget" plan, which would decimate Medicare for anyone my age or younger. This has quickly become the hottest-button issue in what is being spoken of nationally as a bellwether mid-term race. Jane's doing everything she can to deny what she said, short of actually going back in the TARDIS and erasing the tape; faced with the undeniable fact that younger beneficiaries would lose the benefits they've (okay, WE've) been paying into the system for decades to get, and that even over-55 seniors would lose the protection from the prescription "donut hole" made part of last year's health care law (which the Ryan budget would repeal), Jane pulled a Palin: Asked if she feared that senior citizens would have to pay more for health care under the Ryan plan, Corwin said, “To be honest, I don’t have figures on that.” Yep, Katie, I'll have my minions look those figures up and we'll git right back to ya, you betcha.
----
Yet none of this anticipated the spectacle of the past 24 hours.
Today was the day of The Big Debate, the only one Jane's handlers would let her out of the Skinner box to attend, lest she stick a fashionably Gucci-shod foot in her mouth. It was supposed to feature the four candidates on the ballot, including Crazy Jack but also Ian Murphy, the local blogger who punk'd Wisconsin Guv Scott Walker earlier this year pretending to be a Kochsucker brother. The TV station running the debate then banned Ian because he made fun of their anchorman on his blog. Next, Crazy Jack bailed on it, allegedly because of that dissing. But things really got goofy last night, when a "volunteer" for Jane's campaign reported an assault on him by Crazy Jack, showing Jack attacking the camera-weilding "volunteer" while being filmed by yet another "citizen journalist" who just happened to put the video in the hands of Jane's website within about an hour of its occurrence.
The "victim" of this madness? None other than Jane's taxpayer-paid Chief of Staff from her current do-nothing state Assembly job. Ever since Crazy Jack started picking up traction in the polls, he's been on Jack's trail as a full-time "tracker," following him everywhere, heckling him at events, and hoping to get a "macaca" moment out of him that will end his candidacy. The only problem is, NY-26 is so reliably redneck, crazy actually sells here. And it will only take a swing of five to ten points of the True Wingy Nutty vote to send Jane back to her mansion and her yacht, with no hope ever of her ripping HER shirt off when she gets bored with pedestrian politics.
Stay tuned. It can only get weirder.
A little background, for those coming in late. NY-26 is about as red a district as you can get in this bluest of blue states without annexing portions of Texas. A decade ago, when a draft redistricting plan threatened to put Rochester Congresswoman-for-Life Louise Slaughter in the same district as local Republican prettyboy Tom Reynolds, the latter went to Albany, spreading wisdom and cash around. He got the Lej to pass "Tom's Law"- a revised plan that stripped the City of Buffalo and most of the Rochester area of effective representation, but rewarded Reynolds with perhaps the safest Republican seat for 1,000 miles.
He then came close to losing it in 2006, when he became embroiled in one of the numerous GOP sex scandals, surviving the challenge, most likely, because we had a big storm here a month before the election, giving him photo ops on helicopters and with big FEMA checks to pass out all over the district. He took this as sufficient writing on the wall and retired to lobbying, whereupon the Repugs basically cloned him with Chris Lee, who won narrowly in '08 and handily last year before, you know, the shirt thing.
The Guv called the special election for May 24th. Dems quickly settled on Kathy Hochul (D-Hamburg), our county's clerk, with an impeccable record of managing that office and the affiliated local auto bureau and a history of being a hardworking, hands-on campaigner. After a few weeks of infighting, the GOP picked "Annoi Jane" Corwin (R-Stepford), the heiress of a local phone book company who claims to have been creating jobs in Western New York since she was four years old.
Given the demographics of the district and the general toxicity of Democratic politics in recent months, this race was entirely Jane's to lose. So far, she has done everything within her power to do just that. She started out with Day One attack ads against Kathy for being a pawn of Nancy Pelosi, when it quickly became clear that Kathy wasn't picked by, beholden to or even acquainted with the House's deposed leader. Next, she turned her sights on her biggest bugaboo, "Crazy Jack" Davis. Jack is the other allegedly self-made small-businessman millionaire in the race. He bought the Dem nomination in 2006 and lost; ran as an independent Democrat in 2008 and thereby enabled Shirtless to win; and is now running as a "Tea Party" candidate in this race, much to the chagrin of the likes of Karl Rove, who prefer to have the Teabaggers doing his business. Rove's attack ads are now targeting Jack as part of a Democratic "trick" to defeat their Mannequin-churian Candidate. They even co-opted one of the leading leaders of the Wingnuts in the 26th: "Sideshow Bob" Lonsberry, who runs a three-hour hatefest on Rochester's leading AM talker. Bob had actually endorsed Crazy Jack, only to pull out (and immediately into Jane) when he accused the latter of lying about the Republican candidate's position on Medicare reform.
Jane, you see, was dumb enough to come out unreservedly in favor of the "Ryan budget" plan, which would decimate Medicare for anyone my age or younger. This has quickly become the hottest-button issue in what is being spoken of nationally as a bellwether mid-term race. Jane's doing everything she can to deny what she said, short of actually going back in the TARDIS and erasing the tape; faced with the undeniable fact that younger beneficiaries would lose the benefits they've (okay, WE've) been paying into the system for decades to get, and that even over-55 seniors would lose the protection from the prescription "donut hole" made part of last year's health care law (which the Ryan budget would repeal), Jane pulled a Palin: Asked if she feared that senior citizens would have to pay more for health care under the Ryan plan, Corwin said, “To be honest, I don’t have figures on that.” Yep, Katie, I'll have my minions look those figures up and we'll git right back to ya, you betcha.
----
Yet none of this anticipated the spectacle of the past 24 hours.
Today was the day of The Big Debate, the only one Jane's handlers would let her out of the Skinner box to attend, lest she stick a fashionably Gucci-shod foot in her mouth. It was supposed to feature the four candidates on the ballot, including Crazy Jack but also Ian Murphy, the local blogger who punk'd Wisconsin Guv Scott Walker earlier this year pretending to be a Koch
The "victim" of this madness? None other than Jane's taxpayer-paid Chief of Staff from her current do-nothing state Assembly job. Ever since Crazy Jack started picking up traction in the polls, he's been on Jack's trail as a full-time "tracker," following him everywhere, heckling him at events, and hoping to get a "macaca" moment out of him that will end his candidacy. The only problem is, NY-26 is so reliably redneck, crazy actually sells here. And it will only take a swing of five to ten points of the True Wingy Nutty vote to send Jane back to her mansion and her yacht, with no hope ever of her ripping HER shirt off when she gets bored with pedestrian politics.
Stay tuned. It can only get weirder.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-12 06:56 pm (UTC)Argh argh argh.
How does Jane compare to the wingnut whose flyer you sent me?
no subject
Date: 2011-05-12 07:50 pm (UTC)And hey! I didn't even mention the part about Crazy Jack being just as selective in the hiring of HIS staff!
Staffer By Day, Male Escort by Night (http://wnymedia.net/buffalopundit/2011/03/jack-davis-campaign-staffer-by-day-male-escort-by-night/)
no subject
Date: 2011-05-12 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 01:43 am (UTC)